SPECIAL EVENT: First Page Frenzy Critique Night !!!

Since it's been 2 1/2 years !!! High time for a First Page Frenzy !!!

Virtual Zoom Meetup, Monday @7pm, September 15, 2025. You have ONE MONTH to prepare.

Here's how it works:

1. You will submit first pages of your stories and/or novels-in-progress via Google form prior to the cutoff. Scott will know who you are, but your story will be kept anonymous to the group.
2. We will read a first page out loud.
3. We will vote with the voting buttons whether we would keep reading.
4. We will briefly (and we do mean briefly) discuss why. Usually we take one or two to speak for and against.
5. Lather, rinse and repeat until we run out of time.

Why ??? Why oh Why ???

The First Page is critical. Agents, Publishers, and Readers will often STOP READING after the first page. This exercise is all about understanding the art of creating an excellent launching pad into the rest of your story. First Page Frenzy is a great low-pressure way to get quick opinions, and find out if your opening page gets it done.

On meeting night, we'll read an anonymous page, have a quick discussion whether we would continue reading further if we were agents/acquiring editors, and then move on to the next one.

Everyone is encouraged (but not required) to participate. First pages are voluntary. Critique is voluntary. Just listening is okay, too.

We have set up a Google Form to collect your submissions. Your name and email address are part of the form, but will NOT be shared with the group.

Please UPLOAD your FIRST PAGE. Just the text. Please remove identifying headers, names, titles. Please include the genre. You can submit the whole story (but it's better if you only send a page or two).
We'll only use the first page.

No submissions after 11:59 PM on the Friday night prior to the Meetup (Friday @11:59pm September 12th).

We won't fix spelling or carriage returns or any junk like that. So, do a grammar check. Just saying.

We will format into Landscape (11 x 8.5), 12 point Times New roman (or Arial), with 1 inch margins and two (2) columns. Just like Critique Night.

Yes, we will accept more than one submission per person. The more the merrier. We'll try to make sure we don't do 2nd submissions before we get through everyone's 1st submissions.

See you all then, and looking forward to seeing your pages!

Click here to go to the submission form: https://forms.gle/mx9tV3QjquT5mnTJA

If you run into trouble with the form, you can check with us at the private Facebook group, or you can PM.